2022/2023 Policy Pipeline Snapshot

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to this year’s edition of Policy Pipeline!

Policy Pipeline highlights the wide-ranging issues facing school systems and administrators daily and serves as a reminder that almost every area of school life is subject to regulation by either the federal or state government. As usual, legislative developments are the catalyst for many of this year’s updates. Besides updates to longstanding state laws, school systems face new responsibilities from the Alabama Legislature including mental health services and planning for enrollment of military students. Other areas – like Title IX – are evolving due to forthcoming federal regulations or state law (or both). Beyond those matters, we have also included topics that have come up repeatedly over the past year in our conversations with all of you.

Also, for our charter school members, we have added a new feature. For any topic that may impact charter schools as well as our traditional public K-12, we have added an icon so you can easily find the topics that may be relevant to you.

Our goal is to provide you with sound guidance by carefully considering whether adopting a policy on a certain topic is advisable and ensuring that adopted policies give the board the flexibility and discretion it may need to deal with wide-ranging circumstances. Our longtime subscribers know that good governance sometimes includes deciding that no policy is required, and we have made that suggestion in this year’s Pipeline as needed.

The Pipeline examines the policy implications of legislation and related legal developments. Readers are encouraged to take advantage of AASB’s other information services (for example, the Advocate for Schools and Court Report) to gain a broader perspective on legislation and other legal developments of interest to school leaders.

To make the process of updating your policy manuals easier, a Microsoft Word version of each suggested policy is included on the thumbdrive provided to you as part of your Policy Pipeline subscription. Each policy is provided in the format used by the school boards that revised their policy manual through AASB’s Policy Review & Analysis (“AASB Policy Project”). Also, a PDF version of the Pipeline is included on your thumbdrive. That version has hyperlinks that will take you to the Alabama Acts passed by the Legislature and other pertinent documents. We hope the Pipeline serves as a useful guide as you prepare to update your school board’s policies for the upcoming school year, but as always, work closely with your local counsel for legal advice.

POLICY ADOPTION

Alabama law contains specific, straightforward requirements for the adoption of a school board policy, commonly called “meet and confer”:

• Superintendent’s notification to the “local employees’ professional organization” (usually the local AEA uniserv director) of proposed policies with opportunity to comment;

• Written recommendation by the superintendent to the board;

• A majority vote of the board; and

• Publication of the new policy to affected persons within 20 days of adoption.

Boards should put in place steps to ensure compliance with those requirements before voting to adopt a policy since failure to do so could lead to a legal challenge. However, since the requirements for adopting a policy are statutory, a policy governing the adoption of policy is unnecessary.

AASB recommends notifying the local uniserv director of any changes to policy in writing. You can send proposed policies by mail or email. AEA has told many boards they only want to be sent policies that impact employees, but this contradicts the law’s requirements. Therefore, the uniserv director must be sent all policies, even those that do not affect employees (e.g., student policies, Code of Student Conduct, finance policies, etc.). If uniserv directors choose to discard those non-employee policies, that is their prerogative.

The law does not provide a timeline for sharing the policies with the uniserv director for feedback so apply a rule of reason. For most policies, a reasonable timeframe is 10-14 days before the board will vote. However, remember that you can always work with AEA and ask them to agree to a shorter timeline or to expedite their review, if needed particularly if the policy is required by law, is brief, is one that benefits your employees, or does not impact employees. Where you are adopting many policies at once, a longer timeline may be reasonable. Give the uniserv director a date to give you any written comments, e.g., a few days before the board will vote on the policy change.

Over the years, many boards have developed a local “Policy Adoption” policy or practice that includes layers of review or procedural steps beyond the ones required by law, such as taking all board policies through a committee process or “tabling” every policy for a month. AASB recommends boards do not adopt such a policy and/or delete such a policy if it already exists. If a board wants to use the committee process or table a policy, it may do so for specific policies as needed, but requiring the board to jump through extra hoops not required by law for every policy is a waste of time and resources. Sometimes, a board may need to move quickly to adopt a policy, and a board policy mandating extra steps only slows down the process. Absent such a policy, a board can be assured that it has complied with the law if it can show it met the four statutory requirements outlined above.

SEIZURE SAFE SCHOOLS ACT

ALA. CODE §§16-30C-1, et. seq.

Last year, we told you about the Seizure Safe School Act, which takes effect at the beginning of the 2022/2023 school year. The Act allows a parent/guardian of a public school K-12 student with a seizure disorder to “seek care for the student’s seizures while the student is at school or is participating in a school-sponsored activity.” Ala. Code §16-30C-2. At that time, AASB did not believe that the Act itself required adoption of a local board policy but was awaiting regulations to be developed by the State Department of Education and the State Board of Nursing to confirm.

A review of those regulations, which became effective July 15, 2022, reveals that our initial view was correct no such policy is required. However, the Act’s requirements are rigorous and include:

• Development of a “seizure management and treatment plan” for students with seizure disorders, including:

o A list of the health care services the student may receive at school or while participating in a school sponsored activity;

o A list of prescribed medications the student may receive including the name and purpose of the medication, the prescribed dosage, how the medication may be administered and how often and under what circumstances;

o An evaluation of the student’s level of understanding and ability to manage his or her seizures;

o The signature of the student’s parent or guardian; and

o The name and address of the physician responsible for the student’s seizure treatment; and

• Submission of the seizure management and treatment plan to the school system’s lead nurse for their review “at all of the following times”:

o Before or at the beginning of the school year;

o Upon enrollment of the student, if the student enrolls in a school after the school year has begun; and

o As soon as practicable following a diagnosis of a seizure disorder for the student. The new regulations contain “Training Tiers” detailing the training required for school personnel:

• Tier One: all school personnel will receive training “that provides a basic understanding of seizure recognition and management;”

• Tier Two: classroom teachers and all school personnel who have a “need to know” will receive training for seizure recognition and management detailing their responsibility for student with seizures throughout the day; and

• Tier Three: one or more volunteer school staff member(s) who receive training regarding seizure management and provide emergency rescue medication administration and care for student with seizure.

Systems should carefully review the new regulations to prepare for developing seizure management treatment plans and training its employees for the upcoming school year.

PROMOTION

ALA. CODE §16-6G-1, et. seq.

In 2019, the Alabama Legislature passed the “Alabama Literacy Act,” which provided that third grade students who did not demonstrate sufficient reading skills could not be promoted to the fourth grade unless the student qualified for a good cause exemption. The Act was to be implemented for the 2021/2022 school year but last year, Governor Ivey called on the Legislature to consider a delay.

This year, the legislature passed two bills revising the original Act. Act 2022-391 delays the Alabama Literacy Act’s third grade retention provision. As a result, beginning with the 2023/2024 school year, third grade students must demonstrate sufficient reading skills to be eligible for promotion to fourth grade unless an exemption applies.

In addition, Act 2022-392 further refined the original Act by:

• providing for additional members on the Literacy Task Force;

• prohibiting the retention of a third-grade student more than once; and

• allowing ELL students who have received less than three years of ELL instruction a good cause exemption.

AASB does not recommend adopting a policy that details the promotion requirements or that attempts to restate the terms of the Alabama Literacy Act. Rather, a general policy providing that a student must meet applicable legal requirements to be promoted is recommended.

Promotion

Students are promoted from grade to grade based on academic credit earned during the school year, in summer school programs, or in such other academic programs as may be approved or recognized by the Board and in accordance with applicable law. Students who are eligible for promotion from grade to grade may nevertheless be retained by agreement of the parents and appropriate school officials.

[Reference : ALA. CODE § 16-6G-1, et. seq.]